Bacon makes the happiest happy hour

Food trends come and go, but bacon will always be with us. In the last 10 years, I’ve seen deep-fried-battered bacon, maple-syrup-glazed bacon strips and bacon dressed up in dozens of other variations as bar snacks.

And just when I thought bars couldn’t top themselves yet again, along comes Local 360. Friday, the Belltown bar and restaurant will devote its entire happy-hour menu to bacon — two dozen bar snacks, cocktails and desserts infused, sprinkled or mixed with the divine porky nosh.

Last year
the event became so popular that Local 360 now requests patrons make reservations. I’ve been to the last two bacon happy hours, and the bar and dining area were packed by 5:30 (though for a party of two, you can likely find room).

Along with the staples — bacon cheeseburger and bacon mac and cheese — there’s popcorn coated with bacon grease and root-beer-glazed pork belly. There’s European-inspired snacks like bacon-wrapped rabbit pâté and a salt-cod-and-bacon brandade. And to finish, a crème brûlée-inspired dessert of bacon corn pudding with caramelized sugar.

The bacon happy hour takes place about once every three months, and the menu varies each time. Mercifully, the atrocious bacon old-fashioned cocktail I had is not on Friday’s menu, though there will be similar spins on it, including the “Bacon and Eggs” cocktail with bacon infused bourbon and bacon-flavored simple syrup, topped with an egg-white foam.

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @tanvinhseattle. Tan Vinh is a features writer for the Seattle Times. He hikes and drinks for a living, though he never does both at the same time. At least not while on the clock.